I met Daryl on Psyche Ledge in the spring of 76. I had just hitched up from Vancouver and was planning to rendezvous with Dave for a weekend of neophyte shenanigans (it's a wonder either of us survived that first season). It was late afternoon with the western sun finally warming the Grand Wall and the forested old highway and as I approached Psyche Ledge I saw two trolls sitting in the grass doing troll stuff. I mean, they had to be trolls, they had long shaggy hair and dirty headbands and were communicating in some hard to understand language while passing a bottle of straight Dark Navy Rum back and forth. I cautiously approached them and said hello. The red haired troll responded with a gruff but cheery, "Hi, how's it going man? I'm Daryl and this is Stewart, have a drink."

So began my friendship with the late great Daryl Hatten, aka Doug Fir, Chrome Molybdenum Man, Darly Halfweenie, PO Solo or whatever colorful moniker best suited the occasion.

Daryl and I became regular climbing partners through the late seventies and early eighties. He taught me many of the fundamentals of big wall climbing and was totally trustworthy.
Daryl was also an excellent free climber and a five hour romp up the Grand via Cruel Shoes back in the mid eighties stands out in my mind. Daryl and Eric Weinstein were the strongest rockclimbing team in Squamish at that time. Among their many accomplishments was the second ascent of the PO with Java and Kim, at that time, the hardest big wall in the world.

Daryl had a sharp wit and great sense of humour. He loved plays on words. We were bivied on the Artery Ledge while starting up a cool overhanging unclimbed wall. Daryl thought it looked just like a mini Shield Headwall and suggested we call the wall "The Panty Shield". We liked that and kicked around names for our yet unclimbed route. It was quite rainy and we felt a bit amphibious in our endeavours so a frog theme emerged. I was reading some Kurt Vonnegut at the time and he made reference to a character known as the Pan Galactic Straw Boss. As we lay there mouldering in our sodden bivi gear, smoking bunk we merged the amphibian with some Vonnegut and came up with the Pan Granitic Frogman. We laughed so hard we cried.
We left ropes fixed to our high point and before I could come back to finish the route, sprained my ankle taking a sixty footer of Rainy Day Dream Away while Daryl was holding the rope. Dary went back and finished the aid route with John Simpson.

Nathan sent me this shot -it shows the mystery bolt where the angle changes to quite steep,

Credit: NK

In the summer of 82 Daryl did a boatload of climbing including the FA of the Negro Lesbian, the first one day ascent of the dyke with Perry, the second ascent of breakfast run (where he fired the crux pitch so fast that one p croft who was watching from the road commented "oh that must be A2")
As August wound down Daryl was keen to finish a Pan Wall project he had started earlier with Peder Ourom, but who was unavail at the time. He recruited me and after repeating and fixing the first couple pitches we repaired to Judd Road for the usual refreshments and entertainment.
Daryl used to have this stunt where every time he went to get (another) beer from the fridge he'd fire a one arm pullup. Well that night he was more focused on the trickery looming the next am rather than the opportunities for circus tricks in the living room. He knew this pitch had all the elements of greatness and he wanted to make sure he put in a worthy effort, one that he could be proud of.
Dary didn't disappoint, he did a first rate job the next day using classical nailing techniques including equalized rurps, with none of the much disdained copperheads that he like other masters of their craft such as burton and sutton, viewed as a hack approach unless absolutely necessary. There was no bolt placed to the left of the crack mid pitch.
The final pitch was mine up a short ladder and then to some further trickery. I'd always thought I'd screwed up and put in an unneeded bolt at one point, but Nathan was kind enough to assure me he didn't think that was the case when they did the 2nd ascent in 2011.
I do hope that subsequent ascentionists chop what i believe is a bolt and a rivet at what was likely a bail point during a repeat attempt; it would restore a great pitch and be a suitable memorial to a good friend.

gf
Does 3.55am represent a late night, or an early morning? Neither one registers on my radar. Thanks for a great tale. I looked up Pan Granitic and Son of Pan in McLane's 2005 comprehensive, and in Bourdon's 2012 select, but couldn't find either in either. [Sounds like the "There was a young gay from Khartoum" limerick.] Hopefully it was a bail bolt, and not a chicken bolt. Either way, chop chop!

On the subject of guidebooks, I noted that there were a few three and a half star routes in McLane, not many, but no four star routes. I assume that he is waiting for the ultimate perfect line, a challenge for some future generation. A possible project for BM, and the other young guns posting on this thread????? Perhaps all of the plums are not yet picked.

On the other hand there are lots of four star routes in Bourdon. Does anyone else think that his cover photo has been rotated through 90 degrees? In my experience most trees grow upwards, not sideways. However all that rain in Squish could result in weak roots, and a corresponding sideways tilt.....

Hi Hamie,
Best to you as solstice etc approaches.
I'm afraid I'll leave the vagaries of star systems alone and let the pitches do the talking. Discerning climbers as we all fancy ourselves to be don't need no stinking guidebook to tell us what to like....
Regarding the time stamp on my post, alas such is the life of perpetual jet lag. My bod has a hard time if it should be working to an asian or canadian clock so I tend to go to bed pretty early and then wake up damm early; sometimes I go back to sleep, other times I just putter away on a bit of work etc. Fortunately this am saw me back sawing logs until 6:15 then it was a five alarm fire to get the gear sorted before big jim came by at 7. We had a banner session with my better half joining us for her first ski this season after badly breaking her pelvis in a bike race last july! No danger of any climbing breaking out, the next few days look like a series of righteous fronts delivering primo fun.

We used to buy a box of machine screws and put a hundred or so through our tires from the inside out. Then lay a layer of duct tape over the heads to protect the tubes. Weird as hell the first time you try riding, but sure did make a difference in the wet mud, dirt, leaves, sticks, etc